Most kids look
forward to having a break from school at Christmas time. You don’t
have to get up early, and you get to relax most of the day after you finally
roll out of bed. Not the story for approx. 70 students who participated
in the Arnie Brown hockey school over the Christmas Holidays. Four straight
days, kids from as young as 3 ½ to 17 would flock to the Apsley Community
Centre for “Chalk Talks”, on-ice drills and scrimmages. In the early
morning, we were surrounded by the first group of our future NHL stars, the
under 8 year olds. As the kids sat in awe, eyes focused on Arnie, the
parents and grandparents were learning while Arnie gave his “Chalk Talk”.
The “Chalk Talks” were both interesting and informative to the kids, as well
as the parents. The students learned the basics in passing, and also
how to properly protect themselves when going into the boards to retrieve
a puck. They also learned about their stick, and that by buying one
with the right angle, blade length, and by cutting the shafts, that they
could have better control of the puck when stick handling. The next
group to arrive were the 9 to 12 year olds. This year, this age category
held almost 25 students! Shawn and Denver Tucker along Michael Thurston
helped Arnie on the ice with the students. They skated drills with
the students, and refereed the scrimmages. Having no rest, Arnie and
his fearless helpers were back on the ice with the last group, the 13 to
17 year olds.

Special thanks go out to Karen Hickey and Kelly Tucker for their organizational
skills on registration day. Also, we’d like to thank all of the sponsors
who help to make this event a great success, with a big thank you to George
Bond for supplying t-shirts for the students with the Arnie Brown Hockey School
logo on the front. As Chair of the North Kawartha Youth Committee, I
really appreciate what the council has done. A special thank you to
Arnie and Warren for putting this school all together.